? Last month Japans whaling fleet set sail for the south pacific in search of humpback whales. They are intending to slaughter 50 humpbacks.?Commercial hunting of humpbacks has been banned worldwide since 1966 yet Japan is using a loophole meant for science to take a few whales to study and further protect them to keep its whaling fleets afloat and in operation.
The United States along with Australia is pressing hard to get this practice stopped. The American ambassador to Tokyo said Wednesday that an agreement may have been reached. Lets hope so. Australia is dispatching ships and planes to conduct surveillance of Japanese killing whales off of Antarctica. They will collect photographic and video evidence to determine if Australia will launch legal action to try and stop Japans whaling industry.
Japan regularly kills about 1000 whales per year in its “scientific program”. Critics say the program is a shield for Japan to keep its whaling industry alive until it can overturn a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Japanese coastal communities have a long history of eating whale meat, and it was a major staple in the poverty-stricken years after World War II. The red meat, however, has plummeted in popularity as alternatives such as beef have become widely available in Japan.
There is little we can do as individuals to prevent this but we can vote with our pocketbooks and do not purchase anything from Japan. If enough of us do that it will be felt by them and perhaps they will do something about it. Our whales are a precious few left in the oceans of the world. There is no reason to harvest any of them now.